Postal sorting machines and methods used for preparing delivery rounds can be fully automatic, or else they can include steps in which it is necessary for an operator to intervene, in particular for handling non-machine-sortable postal articles.
On that subject, a method is already known from Patent Document WO 2014/087069 for merging a postal article with sorted mail. In that method, assistance is provided by visually designating the location at which the postal article should be inserted into the stack.
A method is also already known from Patent Document DE 10 2010 043 389 for merging non-machine-sortable postal articles with machine-sorted mail. In that known method, merging assistance is given to the operator in charge of performing the merging. That operator assistance consists in displaying on a display screen placed next to the operator the image of a reference mailpiece that should precede or that should follow the postal article to be merged, in the ordered sequence of the mailpieces.
Then the operator scans through the sequence of mailpieces until said operator visually identifies the reference mailpiece, whereupon said operator can insert the postal article at the right place in the ordered sequence of the mailpieces.
That type of manual merging in preparing the delivery round needs equipment that does not satisfy current requirements for reducing costs, time, and work space.